Solved Left Z-axis motor seems to have stopped

Hi everyone,

The other day my R1+ stopped mid-print, like it had aborted the print; everything stopped moving and it just stood there until I turned it off.

Then, when I turned it back on and ordered the Z-motor to go up I noticed only the right side is actually moving. In the link below you can see a short video of this happening



What could cause this and what should I do? Do I need a new motor?

Thanks in advance!

 

Thank you for your fast reponse WheresWaldo
What you said makes a lot of sense, but how can I access those connectors? Is there any video guide or something? I suppose they are underneath the bottom floor of the printer?

 

I've been looking into the easiest way to remove the bottom to check those cables (I really do not want to disassemble anything more than strictly necessary...)
If you could please take a look at this video below, would you say that is the easiest way to get to those cables? Basically he drops the printer on its front and unscrews the bottom from the outside. Mine is a R1+, not sure if that makes any difference

 

alright, thank you both for your guidance! I'll disassemble and switch the motor cables and see how it behaves

 

Ok so I finally found the time (didn't want to do this in a rush during the week ) to remove the bottom cover. Unfortunately I was unable to switch the cables because the one closer to the board was rather short.

What I did is: unplug both cables on the motor end only and plug the longest one on the other motor. So basically I connected the cable from the left motor (which was not working) into the right motor, and the left motor stayed disconnected.
Like this neither motor moves! Does this mean it is just probably a faulty cable, or is there some SW/HW check that detects one of the motors is disconnected and prevents the other from moving?

Hope I was clear enough in my description

 

thanks. What you say makes sense, particularly because the cable does not seem to have any visible damage on it.
I guess swapping that would be even easier than the cables. The Stepper Driver Boards are just plugged in, right? No soldering or anything required?

What if I swapped both driver boards and see if the other motor starts working (basically same test I had planned but swapping the board instead of the cable)? That way I should be able to confirm if the board is indeed the problem?

 

I ended up not swapping the driver boards because they were much harder to disconnect, and the one labeled "Z motor 1" on your picture seemed clearly damaged, so I just removed that one and am going to order another one.
Can you confirm that "Z motor 1" corresponds to the damaged motor (left one when looking from front)? The link below has pictures of the damaged motor board, as well as of what I mean by "left Z-axis" (to avoid any confusion ).

PS: the heatsink for the driver board came off while trying to take it out; the rest of the damages visible were already there

https://imgur.com/a/gDdfO6r

 

ok, thanks a lot for all the help!

One last question before I close this. I have some spare driver boards here at home from a RAMPS that I had bought (but never really used) when I was experimenting with another printer. Is there any way (a marking or something) that I can verify if they are the model I need? I put some pictures in attachment, but I can't find any marking stating A4988 on them

 

ok so unfortunately my last tests only left me more confused.

I have confirmed through visual inspection that the non-functional motor was the one connected to the damaged driver board.
I also found a new board here which did not yet have the heatsink attached, so I was able to confirm it was an A4988. I plugged the heatsink into it (apparently it just glues into it) and swapped it in place of the damaged driver board -> motor still not working.
As I can't switch the motor cables since one is very short, what I did is connect the cable coming from the new driver board into the working motor -> neither motor works. What does this mean? :\
I guess it can be a faulty cable... but like you said it doesn't seem likely. I fear it may be the RAMPs board itself that is damaged... What I was thinking next was to swap the cables that connect the driver board to the motor on the RAMPs boards' end. That way I could exclude a cable issue... What do you think?

Once again, thanks for all the help so far!

 

I've finally managed to get the printer up & running again, thank you so much for all your help!
I just replaced the driver board for a third one I had lying around (I had actually bought a full RAMPS kits a while ago when 'playing' with a DIY printer kit) and everything started working correctly. You really saved me a lot of time & money so thanks again